The Hottest Spot During NYFW? Ralph Lauren’s 2024 US Open Box—Usher, Andrew Garfield, Emma Roberts and More!
Every year, the US Open’s profile seems to rise higher and higher.
2024’s edition saw attendance records broken multiple times over, with enough famous personalities in tow to rival a Hollywood-centric summit like the Oscars or Cannes. This past Friday night, as Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz battled in the men’s semifinals, I heard someone say “this is like the Met Gala” when looking up at the jumbotron; jaws mostly dropped as celeb after celeb was shown. On Sunday, a friend texted the exact same thing as ESPN’s cameras panned over Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Lindsay Lohan, and plenty more taking in the men’s finals.
Said star power was in full charge–and bedecked in American finery–at Ralph Lauren’s suite over the course of the tournament, where names including Usher, Andrew Garfield, Katie Ledecky, Cole Sprouse, Emma Roberts, and more watched Ashe Stadium’s action and sipped Honey Deuces while enjoying the box’s court-corner vantage point.
Some background info on Ralph Lauren’s involvement with the US Open: the clothier is a longstanding partner of the event, dressing the chair umpires and ball-boys and girls, and providing soft goods on court. (This year, their kits were navy-blue based with rainbow color-blocks.) During the Open, Ralph Lauren also operates retail stores on the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. They’re popular; these stores broke previous years’ sales records well before the tournament’s end. (It should also be noted that, during the peak of the Open, the brand–well oiled machine that it is–also hosted a major fashion show in Bridgehampton, NY, with none other than Dr. Jill Biden in attendance.)
Back to the box: on Friday, social media star Noah Beck (and actor–his first film, The QB Bad Boy and Me, is due out in late 2024) watched Jannik Sinner against Jack Draper in the men’s semis (a match that Sinner would ultimately take in 3 sets).
“Sinner just does not give up on the ball,” I heard Beck say, almost in awe, as the redhead Italian ground out his win. That same evening, Sprouse and Gossip Girl 2.0’s Thomas Doherty were there to cheer on Tiafoe and Fritz.
On Saturday for the women’s final between Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula, Roberts, Rae, Natalia Bryant and Outer Banks’s Jonathan Daviss looked onward as Ashe–with its roof closed due to rain–turned into a bonafide thunderdome.
“This is my very first time at the US Open,” said Bryant, perhaps to the surprise of some, given her family’s prominence in athletics (she is the daughter of the late Kobe Bryant). The IMG-signed model and volleyball player was in town for New York Fashion Week.
“Tennis has similarities with volleyball, in some ways,” she said. “For our scoring, we play sets, too.”
Roberts is a tennis fan. “My heart still hurts for Tiafoe’s loss,” she said, referring to the night before. Roberts ended up at a Meatpacking District bar with her mom to watch that match.
The final Sunday, in which Sinner took on and prevailed over Fritz, was the Open’s starriest session yet. Usher, Garfield, Justin Theroux and his fiancé Nicole Brydon Bloom, Krystal Jung and Ryu Junyeol were in Ralph Lauren’s box, wedged sort of perfectly in Ashe’s celebrity corner. There was Theroux, leaning over the wall to shake hands with Travis Kelce. There was Usher, dapper in a RL baseball x New York Yankees hat, giving a little wave to Swift (she and Kelce were in the neighboring suite).
And while there were plenty of cameras pointed at the A-list, the tennis shone brightest–as it should. Daviss spoke best to the experience of watching these extraordinary athletes at the peaks of their games: “When it’s the championships, and actually all the Slams, I lock in.”
We brought along a Polaroid camera to snap some photos of the stars–call them “Polo”roids.
Photo: Nick Remsen1/12Addison Rae
Photo: Nick Remsen2/12Cole Sprouse, Ari Fournier